Returning to the year 1781, it is to be observed that after that year,
the Bluestocking assemblies gradually died out. Cumberland’s caricature
of them excited the displeasure of good Queen Charlotte; and Miss Burney,
who recognised herself as alluded to under the guise of an Arcadian
nymph, has given a description of a breakfast at the palace in Portman
Square, which did not the least resemble that which was described,
a generation earlier, by Madame du Bocage. The later breakfast was
sumptuous, gorgeous, overcrowded. In splendour of company, banquet, and
locality, it could not be surpassed; and hundreds were there. But we
miss the more select number of intellectual people, who used to fill the
smaller house in Hill Street, where the Bluestockings met, and dignified
their place of meeting. From the year 1781, Mrs. Montagu’s letters
take a graver tone, which is occasionally enlivened by some of her old
brilliancy of expression. The following letter is without date of the
year, but it was written when Hill Street was about being abandoned for
the palace in Portman Square.
“_Hill Street, 2d March, 1781._ ... You will find this town more gay
and splendid than ever; so little effect has the combined evil of wars,
and devastation, and hurricanes. The profuse liberality to Vestris,
ye dancer, and the enthusiastic admiration of his capers exceeds all
the folly I ever knew. Making a visit to a wife of one of the _corps
diplomatique_, the other night, I had the mortification of overhearing
a group of foreigners ridiculing the English for the bustle made about
Vestris.
“... I have already on my chimney-piece a multitude of cards for
assemblies for every day till near the end of passion week. I hope some
of the fine people will spend the Easter holidays in ye country; for such
a succession of assemblies is tiresome.
“... I have, greatly to my satisfaction, got my new house finished and
fit for habitation; and I should have taken possession at this very time,
but the wise people and the medical people say it would be dangerous to
go into a new house just after the winter damp.... As I always leave
London early in May, I was convinced it was not worth while to run hazard
for a few weeks’ pleasure. It is much the fashion to go and see my house,
and I receive many compliments upon its elegance and magnificence, but
what most recommends it to me is its convenience and cheerfulness. A good
house is a great comfort in old age and among the few felicities that
money will procure.
“... I shall be much obliged to you if you will bring to London Thou’s
History, which I lent to your caro sposo five years ago. I suppose he has
long done with it, and I want to read it.”
“_London, December ye 4th, 1781._ ... At this time of ye year, the great
city is solitary, silent, and quiet. Its present state makes a good
preface to the succeeding months of crowd, noise, and bustle.... One
always finds some friends in town; a few agreable people may at any time
be gathered together; and, for my own part, I think one seldom passes the
whole of one’s time more agreably than before the meeting of parliament
in January; and this never appeared more strongly to me than this year,
when so excellent a house was ready to receive me.
“... As age is apt to bring with it a certain degree of melancholy
and discontent, I endeavour to prevent its having that effect, by
sympathising in the joy of my young friends and of improving the objects
about me.... As fast as time wrinkles my forehead, I smooth the grounds
about Sandleford, or embellish my town habitation. In a little while, I
shall never see anything belonging to me that is not pretty, except when
I behold myself in the looking-glass.... At Sandleford, I can assure you,
Mr. Brown has not neglected any of its capabilities. He is forming it
into a lovely pastoral—a sweet Arcadian scene. In not attempting more,
he adapts his scheme to the character of the place and my purse. We
shall not erect temples to heathen gods, build proud bridges over humble
rivulets, or do any of the marvellous things suggested by caprice, and
indulged by the wantonness of wealth. The noble rooms which Mr. Wyatt was
building when you were at Sandleford are now finishing with the greatest
simplicity.
“... To-morrow is look’d to with anxious expectation, as it will in
some measure declare on what terms peace may be obtain’d. I believe all
the belligerent powers are tir’d of the war. But what difficulties the
cunning of statesmen, the pride of kings, or the caprice of the people
may put in the way, one cannot tell. The Spaniards are proud, the French
are petulant, the Dutch are avaricious, and the English are a happy
compound of all these things.
“... My steward (from Northumberland), who made his annual visit to me in
November, told me that north of my estates there were many fields of oats
and barley lying under the snow. I have been very busy with him, settling
our year’s accounts, for these ten days past.
“Lord Edward Bentinck is going to be married to Miss Cumberland. The
Bishop of St. Asaph’s eldest daughter to the learned and ingenious Mr.
Jones.”
“_Portman Square, January ye 17th, 1782._ ... Montagu,” she writes to her
sister-in-law, “returns to me only at Christmas and the long vacation.
The last is spent entirely at Sandleford; for I think the worst thing one
can do by young persons is to give them a habit of restlessness, which is
now so prevalent in the fine world, that all domestick duties, even the
tender parental attentions, are neglected for it....
“I think you did wisely, as well as kindly, in letting my neice partake
of the pleasures of your neighbourhood. To be within the sound of a ball,
and not allow’d to go to it, must seem a hardship to a young person....
Life never knows the return of spring, and I am always an advocate for
their gathering the primroses of their time. A young person not allow’d
to please himself, sometimes will lose any desire to please others.
“I think it would be very desirable for my brother to be a prebend of
Canterbury. There is a local dignity in it, and a clergyman in the
neighbourhood of Canterbury ought to have a stall in the cathedral,
in which he can take a nap with decorum. I should think from the kind
disposition the primate has shown for the family, he will lend a
favorable ear to my brother’s application.... So great is his respect
and tenderness for his brother, Sir William, that perhaps the request,
supported by him, would have additional force.
“... I am glad my good friend, Mr. Brown, is employed by so rich a person
as Lord Bristol. Such an income as his lordship’s cannot be annually
expended on domestick expenses without foolish prodigality and waste....
I am very glad Mr. Brown likes me as a correspondent; for I am obliged
to make a very paltry figure to him as an employer. He is narrowly
circumscrib’d, both in space and expense; but he really gives the poor
widow and her paltry plans as great attention as he could bestow on an
unlimited commission and an unbounded space. He has made a plan to make
my grounds, in prospect of the house and new rooms, very pleasing, and
will execute as much of it every year as I choose, the expense being
agreed upon, which will keep pace with the improvements. The only way to
cheat old Time is, while it robs us of some enjoyments and pleasures,
to be providing new ones. I am a great deal younger, I think, since I
came into my new House, from its cheerfulness; and, from its admirable
conveniences and comforts, less afraid of growing old. My friends and
acquaintances are much pleased with it, ... and I am not afraid to
confess the pleasure I take in their finding it agreable and commodious
for company. But the great satisfaction I feel, as its inhabitant, I
dare confess to few; for few would hear it without envy. People are not
very envious at any advantages they see another possess, if they do not
perceive those advantages add to the happiness of the possessor. Many a
wrinkled old virgin makes it a necessary article of merit in a blooming
girl, that she should not know she is handsome.
“... The Bishop of Durham is going to be married to Miss Boughton. She is
a very proper Person for a wife to a grave bishop—a woman of good family,
good character, and good temper.
“... Pray have my neices read ‘Le Théâtre de l’Education,’ by Mme. de
Genlis? If they have not, I will get it for them.... I think it is one of
the prettiest books that has been written for young persons. The author
is governess to the Duc de Chartres’ children.”
Even Walpole acknowledged the beauty of the house which Mrs. Montagu
had built for her old age and for her heirs—till Lord Rokeby vacated it
recently, the ground lease having “fallen in,” and the edifice passing
to the ground landlord. “I dined,” writes Walpole to Mason, in February,
1782, “on Tuesday with the Harcourts, at Mrs. Montagu’s new palace, and
was much surprised. Instead of vagaries, it is a noble, simple edifice.
Magnificent, yet no gilding. It is grand, not tawdry, not larded, and
embroidered, and pomponned with shreds, and remnants, and clinquant,
like all the harlequinades of Adam, which never let the eye repose an
instant.”
The next letter is addressed to the writer’s niece, Miss Robinson.
“_July ye 9th, 1782._ ... I was, in my youth, directed in the choice of
friends by their solid merit and established character, which was oftener
found in persons older than myself than in my contemporaries. If from
hence I have often wept for dying, I have never been obliged to blush for
my living, friends.... The chief honour and felicity of my life has been
derived from the superior merit of my friends; and, from my experience,
I would, above all things, recommend to every young person to endeavour
to connect themselves with persons whom they can esteem, and, indeed,
reverence, rather than with those whose understandings and virtues they
think merely on a level with, or, perhaps, inferior to, their own....
Principles, opinions, and habits are acquired and formed from those
with whom we live and converse most.... Be cautious, be delicate, be a
little ambitious, my dear neice, in the choice of your friends. I would
be far from inculcating a supercilious contempt for persons of weak
understanding, or a censorious condemnation of their levity of manners.
Humility and charity are the greatest virtues, and let them ever guide
your manners and regulate your conversation.... Be assured that the
wisest persons are the least severe, and the most virtuous are the most
charitable.”
“_Sandleford, July 9, 1782._ ... I had a great deal of occupation of a
more important kind, which was the examination and payment of ye workmen
who had been employed in building and adorning the said house.... As I
got everything accomplished before I left London, I had the satisfaction
of getting a receit in full of all demands from the various artificers. I
will own my taste is unfashionable, but there is to me a wonderful charm
in those words ‘in full of all demands.’ My house never appeared to me so
noble, so splendid, so pleasant, so convenient, as when I had paid off
every shilling of debt it had incurred. The worst of haunted houses, in
my opinion, are those haunted by duns.
“... Mr. Wyatt has nearly completed what belonged to the architect;
and Mr. Brown, by removing a good deal of ground and throwing it down
below, to raise what was too low, while he sank what was too high, has
much improved the view to the south; and, having, at my request, made
a fanlight over the east window, so that the arch formed by the trees
is now visible, these rooms are the most beautiful imaginable. With
the shelter, comfort, and convenience of walls and roofs, you have a
beautiful passage and the green shade of a grove.... The celebrated Mr.
Brown has already beautified our pastoral scenes extreamly.
“... I can easily give you credit when you say you love society, because
I know society loves you, and I am perfectly of the opinion of the common
maxim, that nobody lives out of the world who is fit to live in it. Now
your husband’s party have got into power, I have no doubt but they will
bestow a prebendary upon him, if he asks them. However, his income will
very well afford your spending some months in London every winter.”
“_Sandleford, June ye 16th 1783._ ... You must know, as many authors
with whom I have not any personal acquaintance do me the favour to send
me their works, I found the carriage of them to be amongst my weekly
expenses during the summer. So, of late, if I make a short excursion into
the country, I order the literature to wait until my return. Or, if I go
for a longer time, to be sent down at proper opportunities, with the tea,
or groceries, or some other of the vulgar necessaries of life. So my dear
nephew’s letter was supposed to come with a pamphlet from a bookseller’s
shop, and my porter kept it, with other things from the same source, till
my return from Bath.
“... I found Sandleford improv’d by the attentions of the great Mr.
Brown. My pleasure in those improvements was mix’d with regret for his
death.... Brown was certainly a man of great genius.... Happily for me,
he made a plan for all that is intended to be done here. As I do not
allow my yearly expenses to exceed my yearly income, I go on softly; so
that the plan will hardly be completed by this time two years.
“... I dare say my brother has read with great pleasure Mr. Potter’s
‘Enquiry into some Passages of Doctor Johnson’s Lives of the Poets.’
Mr. Potter has also ably vindicated his friend Mr. Gray’s Odes, etc.,
from cruel and unjust criticism, and this is done with great wit, taste,
and good manners,—ingredients rarely put into the bitters of criticism.
Modern witts and modern orators are apt to fall into the Billingsgate
style, and from every kind of chastisement, made more severe and
outrageous than the fault it should correct, one takes the part of the
culprit against the harshness of the corrector.”
“_Sandleford, September ye 30th, 1783._ ... We are all very well and
very happy; these are the best articles a country journal can contain,
and most likely to be found in a journal when ambitious pursuits and
tumultuous pleasures are perfectly excluded.
“... There is a mode of taking exercise which, from my own experience,
I think I shall recommend to all my friends who are not riders, and
that is a one-horse chair. Sir Richard Jebb, just before I left London,
advis’d me to the use of this carriage. I objected to it, as unpleasant
and unsafe. He assur’d me, that would I allow him to order me one of his
coachmaker, after a model of one he had used on every kind of roads, he
would answer for my finding it easy and secure. To this I consented,
and, in a very obliging manner, he attended almost daily to see it was
properly constructed, and, about six weeks ago, he wrote me word it was
finished. I sent to London for it; and I find it the most delightful way
of taking exercise imaginable. I take an airing sometimes of sixteen or
seventeen miles (ye going and return included), and I am never weary
while abroad, nor fatigued when I get home. My machine is hung so low,
I am exalted but little above the grazing herds, and at ye same time
can hear distinctly the song of the skylark above my head. No rural
sight or rural sound is intercepted. Miss Gregory is my charioteer: she
prides herself more on caution than dexterity, so avoids everything that
could alarm me. As my driver is young, I chose an old horse to draw me;
but so much has every danger been obviated by the construction of the
carriage, I believe I should be very safe with a steed of more vivacity
and spirit. If the weather is doubtful, my post-chaise follows, that we
may take shelter against its inclemencies. I am much pleased with this
prescription of Sir Richard Jebb’s.
“... We are doing a great piece of work in feathers. Every sort of
feather is useful; so shall be much obliged if you can collect some for
me.”
The old formality toward her sister-in-law never changed, as the
following letter will show:
“_November 26, 1783._ ... You mention, my dear madam, with regret that
you had not asked me to dine; but you wrong your hospitality, for you
offered me a very comfortable dinner; but knowing, in your unsettled
state at Burfield, dining guests must be very troublesome, I had
calculated and contrived all things so as to make you merely a noonday
visit. To tell you the truth, I am so afraid of my postillion and
servants getting a too great dose of ale at the houses of gentlemen in a
country neighbourhood, that I make a rule never to dine from home. I have
enjoy’d your kind and elegant hospitality at your house in Kent, and am
sure the same spirit would ever exert itself to give an agreeable welcome
to your friends.
“... Mr. Barret has been very judicious in his choice of Mr. Wyatt for
his architect. He has a most happy art of improving an old house. Where
a part is to be extended beyond the first intention, the additions
should be Gothick; for symmetry not being the object of the Gothick
architects, irregularity is not considered an imperfection in their
designs. Additions made to houses in any other taste destroy the intended
proportions, and introduce confusion and deformity. I am more a friend to
the Gothick on the outside than within; for, unless by great expense and
care, the Gothick fitting-up is clumsy and gloomy. Mr. Walpole tells me
Mr. Wyatt has made a most beautiful design for Mr. Barret. I shall make
my ingenious friend show it to me when he has leisure.
“Pray do you not begin to entertain hopes that you may one day sail in
the air to our planet? Miss Gregory went yesterday to see our air-balloon
launched. I had letters to write, and expected company to dine with me
and to stay the evening, so I could not find time to attend this aerial
machine. All the philosophers at Paris are busy, making experiments on
their balloons, and their _beaux esprits_ are making verses and uttering
_des bons mots_ on them. A friend of mine brought me a dialogue, written
Paris, between the cock, the duck, and the sheep, which made the air
voyage together. The cock was the only animal that seem’d the greater
coxcomb for his travels. It is impossible to say whether this new
invention may not lead to discoveries of importance. At present, it is
merely a philosophical shuttle-cock for the amusement of old children.
As we are not so eager for new playthings as our lively neighbours the
French, we do not make such a bustle about these balloons as they do;
for I understand they are the subject of conversation in all the polite
circles at Paris.
“... Of the many obligations I have received from Mr. Montagu, I do
not reckon it among the least that he permitted me to have my younger
brothers to dine with me every Sunday while they were at Westminster
School; and, after the death of my mother, to have them at Sandleford
during holydays and vacations. Whether these attention make any
impression on those who receive them or not, the person who has paid them
must ever reflect with pleasure on having done their part. _Fate ben per
voi_, do good for your own sake, is an admirable moral maxim.
“... The Prince of Wales has given many brilliant entertainments, but his
present bad condition of health will suspend, at least, those gaieties.
It is thought he has an abscess forming in his side. It is said he
suffers a great deal, but if those sufferings bring him into a habit of
temperance, it will be good for him to have been afflicted. His political
engagements have been productive of some salutary chastisements. He has
been hiss’d _à toute outrance_ at the theatres.
“The French ambassador has fitted up his house with much gayety and
splendor. He is much connected with that party which is at present very
unpopular. It is affirmed that his court has remitted £70,000 to him, to
support the party in elections. The French Cabinet has ever made use of
bribery whenever they could introduce it for their purposes; and alas!
there are few places or persons to whom gold does not find access!
“... I think your evening readings must be very improving to my neice.
History presents to young persons many good examples, and will counteract
the impressions of our newspapers, which give an account of the vices,
follies, and extravagances of ye times. It is much better for a young
lady to read the characters of the Lucretias and Portias, than to defile
her mind with paragraphs of crim. con., elopements, etc.
“... My health has not been interrupted by the bad weather we have had.
I believe Portman Square is the Montpellier of England. I never enjoy’d
such health as since I came to live in it.”
“_1784, Sandleford._ ... The improvements out-of-doors have advanced
greatly from the time I left Sandleford last August. When I left a
little rivulet had assumed the air of a river. Charming walks on its
banks and through the wood make me often think with gratitude of the
late Mr. Brown, by whose plans all these things were accomplish’d.... We
are now embellishing the grounds to the south and making an approach to
the house, which will be far preferable to the present. Mr. Wyatt has
built me a large bedchamber and dressing-room, which command a beautiful
prospect.... Mrs. More and Mrs. Garrick are now with me, and, I flatter
myself, will not leave me before I may hope for my lord primate’s return.”
It was in the above year that Johnson gave the following testimony to the
quality of Mrs. Montagu’s intellect: “Mrs. Montagu, sir, does not make
a trade of her wit; but Mrs. Montagu is a very extraordinary woman; she
has a constant stream of conversation, and it is always impregnated—it
has always meaning.” He further said, “That lady exerts more mind in
conversation than any person I ever met with. Sir, she displays such
powers of ratiocination, such radiations of intellectual eminence, as are
amazing....”